Joanne Thyme Barrett Quirk
March 23, 1951 – August 24, 2024
Joanne Barrett Quirk was born in Starkville Mississippi to Bettye Jo Taylor and Percy Frank Barrett. Travel was her destiny–growing up she lived in Gulfport, New Orleans, and Miami. Her adult years took her to El Paso, (back to) New Orleans, Ohio, Sacramento, Santa Fe, St Louis, Dallas and finally, Southwest WA where she lived from 2006 to her passing at her waterfront Olympia home on August 24, 2024. She was also fortunate in her lifetime to travel the world–nearly every continent–with her family, which made up some of her favorite experiences and memories. She passed on this love of travel to her children.
Joanne graduated in 1969 from Palmetto High School where she was a member of the dance team, the Chatonettes–an officer her senior year. After graduating high school, Joanne first attended Miami Dade Jr College, where she danced, and later the University of Texas–El Paso, where she earned her BS in Speech Pathology. She later achieved her MS in Speech Pathology from the University of Dallas in 2005. For nearly 40 years she practiced in her beloved field, primarily with K-12 kids in school districts across the US from New Orleans, to Dallas, to several locations in Thurston and Pierce County, Washington. She loved her life’s work. To Joanne, every moment was a teachable one for her kids and grandkids–so much of what they know is because of her. She was on her grandson’s special services team for speech pathology at his school.
A brilliant woman and lifelong learner with a fascination for history and science, particularly anthropology, paleontology, archaeology, and world cultures, she pored over national geographics as a child, and she was always reading and researching right up to her final days. Perhaps one of her life’s highlights was the dinosaur dig in South Dakota she was gifted by her son and attended with her family in 2022. She was also fascinated by space, particularly black holes and other phenomena. She loved all creatures, including snakes, a love that passed to her children and grandchildren. Anything she feared she worked to overcome. She was incredibly open-minded, loved to learn and was always willing–even looked forward–to having her mind changed.
The only thing she loved more than learning was her family, whom she dedicated her life to from first becoming a mother in 1980 through her unexpected passing this August. She is survived by her three loving children, Lauren, Robert Jr. and Cailin and their spouses Aaron, Molly, and Jon; four precious and adoring grandchildren (who called her “Jama”) and who spent considerable time with her; nephews; cousins, and many dear–in some cases lifelong–friends. Her family was her world, but she was also a woman who valued all her close relationships and anyone else she met. To know Joanne was to love her–she made everyone feel seen, heard and deeply valued with her ability to listen, her contagious smile and her expressive laugh.. Her contributions were immeasurable in the lives of many–she was a true treasure and will be greatly missed.
In life, Joanne made her posthumous wishes known, and those were to “become a tree.” Our family was honored to work with Recompose in Seattle for her very private ceremonies and to make her wishes come true.
In lieu of a formal funeral, flowers or cards, please consider a donation in memory of Joanne Barrett to the following organizations that she loved and supported: